Increase Internet in Avalon for Education & Safety

Hi,

I'm Lance, a lifelong visitor to Catalina and Avalon, a technologist, and a ig believer in access to education for everyone!

As a visitor, local, and boater I am aware of the challenges of lack of internet for the children, public safety, doctors/nurses, courts, locals, as well as boaters, and tourists.

I used to love to come here to "get away" and so the internet (and cellular) not working was almost a blessing. But if you live here, and work here, it can make life difficult. Especially for doing research, college preparation, etc.

Not to mention, many day visitors want to communicate with friends, or family that are off the island and need a reliable way to do so.

I'm asking for help in raising funds to build better more reliable connectivity that can scale with demand.

I have a long background in Internet and telecom, both in the US and globally, and Catalina like all islands has it's unique challenges. Many assume there is fiber to the island, there is not. Many assume it is easy to bring in internet, but it is not.

So let's help get reliable internet to the island and redistribute it to anyone who needs it.

We'd love your help and support. The initial fundraising is just that, and more will be needed longer term to maintain it, but this is a start and will allow for 12 months of services to the island at 1 Gbps or more, with a redundant link to follow after that and double the bandwidth to 2 Gbps or more.

I am going to be matching funds as well as providing all the labor and installation oversight with contractor friends doing the tower work for cheap or free.

Lance